Last week, the mayoral election in Chicago produced a shocking result when incumbent Rahm Emanuel—Barack Obama’s former chief of staff—failed to get the 51% of the vote needed to avoid a run-off. Emanuel should be worried, but you know who should really be terrified? Hillary Clinton and her acolytes. This election result is a warning that not everyone is ready for Hillary. First, some context. In Chicago, Da Mare does not go to a runoff. Ever. If you’re in charge of the machine, it does your bidding and its gets you re-elected, period. That’s how Richard M. Daley ended up...

Sen. Kirk: Chicago Could End Up Like Detroit If Mayor Emanuel Not Re-Elected March 2, 2015 Craig Dellimore (CBS) — Republican U.S. Senator Mark Kirk has given his tacit endorsement of Mayor Rahm Emanuel for re-election, reports WBBM Political Editor Craig Dellimore. He refused to call it an endorsement, but Senator Mark Kirk made clear he feels Chicago would risk dire financial straits like Detroit has seen if Mayor Emanuel is not re-elected.

Currently, 61 members of Congress have confirmed they will not attend the speech. Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) California Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) — “I am disappointed Speaker Boehner chose to irresponsibly interject politics into what has long been a strong and bipartisan relationship between the United States and Israel. As President Obama has noted, it is inappropriate for a Head of State to address Congress just two weeks ahead of their election. I agree that Congress should not be used as a prop in Israeli election campaigns,...

President Barack Obama last week vetoed legislation that would have greenlighted the Keystone XL pipeline, linking Canadian oil sands to the U.S. Gulf Coast. The Senate lacks the votes to override Obama's veto. Yet Keystone isn't dead. Both Democrats and Republicans have an interest in keeping this political football in play. Someday, we hope, the pipeline will be built. But that day won't come any time soon — and perhaps never during Obama's dwindling presidency. In his veto message, Obama asserted that he hasn't decided whether Keystone should be built or not. Obama said he was using his veto pen...

The debt-plagued city of Chicago took another financial blow late Thursday when Moody's Investors Service downgraded the city's debt rating, citing its overwhelming pension burden. Even if recent state pension changes survive a court challenge, the ratings statement said, "we expect Chicago's unfunded pension liabilities — and the costs of servicing those liabilities — to continue to grow, placing significant strain on the city's financial operations." The drop, to a rating of Baa2, could drive up borrowing costs for the city and cause problems with some of Chicago's current interest-rate swap contracts.

The Dem Congressmen Boycotting Netanyahu are the Same Old Hamas SupportersPosted By Daniel Greenfield On February 26, 2015 @ 6:02 pm In The Point | 12 Comments There are a lot of stories about the Dem members of Congress boycotting Netanyahuâ€™s speech. But most of the names on the list are longtime opponents of the Jewish State.The boycott lists consists of two groups. Congressional Black Caucus members who are offended on Obamaâ€™s behalf and can smell racism anywhere.The other consists of opponents of Israel.Itâ€™s instructive to compare the list of boycotters to the 54 members of Congress who signed...

The US Department of Justice and embattled mayor Rahm Emanuel are under mounting pressure to investigate allegations of what one politician called “CIA or Gestapo tactics” at a secretive Chicago police facility exposed by the Guardian.Politicians and civil-rights groups across the US expressed shock upon hearing descriptions of off-the-books interrogation at Homan Square, the Chicago warehouse that multiple lawyers and one shackled-up protester likened to a US counter-terrorist black site in a Guardian investigation published this week. As three more people came forward detailing their stories of being “held hostage” and “strapped” inside Homan Square without access to an attorney...

While many say the right to vote is priceless, in Chicago, the real value of a vote itself is apparently $10. In the run up to the Windy City’s vote this week for city leaders, resident Willie Allen says he was approached and offered $10 to vote for a particular candidate. “I was coming down the street, going to the house. And there was a gentleman who approached me,” Allen says.

A Palestinian immigrant convicted of hiding an Israeli terrorism conviction from U.S. authorities when she moved to the Chicago suburbs in the 1990s should be locked up for at least five years, federal prosecutors say. Anything less would be a “slap on the wrist” for Evergreen Park activist Rasmieh Odeh, and could encourage terrorists fighting with ISIS to come to the U.S., they argue. But lawyers for Odeh — who was convicted by an Israeli court of taking part in a Jerusalem supermarket bombing that killed two students in 1969 — say she was a freedom fighter, not a terrorist,...

More than two dozen states have joined the Texas lawsuit opposing President Obama’s executive amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, but more eye-opening is the list of Republican governors whose names still do not appear on the suit. The seven Republicans who have thus far elected not to join the suit aimed at reining in Obama are Chris Christie of New Jersey, Terry Branstad of Iowa, Larry Hogan of Maryland, Susana Martinez of New Mexico, Matthew Mead of Wyoming, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Bruce Rauner of Illinois. Five of those seven states – Maryland, Iowa, New Mexico, Massachusetts and...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog Sunday of undermining his efforts to prevent Iran’s nuclearization by declining to call a potentially nuclear Iran an existential threat to the State of Israel. “I agree that a nuclear Iran is extremely dangerous, and I believe that it must be prevented,” Herzog said in an interview with Washington Post correspondents William Booth and Ruth Eglash. “No Israeli leader will accept a nuclear Iran. All options for me are still on the table,” including Israeli military strikes. When they asked if he agrees with Netanyahu that a nuclear Iran would...

The proportion of Democrats who sympathize more with Israel than with Palestinians in the Mideast conflict dropped ten points this year to 48 percent, according to a new poll by Gallup. The polling company suggested a link to tensions between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu over the Iran nuclear threat. In addition, the percentage of Democrats viewing Israel favorably also dropped—by 14 points—over the past year, from 74 percent to 60, the poll found. By contrast Republican sympathy for Israel over the Palestinians rose to 83 percent, continuing a trend that has risen from the low 50s...

Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog announced Tuesday he will not be traveling to the US to appear before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual conference, amid growing tensions over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned speech to Congress on March 3. "Netanyahu's spin about who is going to Washington must stop," Herzog told a gathering of foreign media in Israel. "My firm position against a nuclear Iran is known by every Israeli and American, including the US president, and I know how to voice it in a sharp, clear manner - from here, not from there." Herzog added: "A...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined on Tuesday an invitation to meet with US Senate Democrats during his trip to Washington next week. "Though I greatly appreciate your kind invitation to meet with Democratic Senators, I believe that doing so at this time could compound the misperception of partisanship regarding my upcoming visit," Netanyahu wrote in a letter to Senators Richard Durbin and Dianne Feinstein obtained by Reuters. Durbin and Feinstein had invited Netanyahu to a closed-door meeting with Democratic senators in a letter on Monday.

Both Israeli and American pundits have spent the last month abusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his decision to accept an invitation to speak to a joint session of Congress next month about the Iranian nuclear threat. The White House’s effort to spin the speech as a breach of protocol and an unwarranted interference in a U.S. debate about Iran has largely succeeded in rallying a significant number of congressional Democrats to back away from support of the sanctions bill co-sponsored by Senators Mark Kirk and Bob Menendez, as well as getting some to threaten to boycott Netanyahu’s speech. But...

On Monday Senators. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., invited Netanyahu to meet in a closed-door session with Democrats during his visit. Netanyahu declined the invitation on Tuesday and expressed regret about the politically fraught tone of his trip. “I regret that the invitation to address the special joint session of Congress has been perceived by some to be political or partisan,” Netanyahu wrote. “I can assure you that my sole intention in accepting it was to voice Israel’s grave concerns about a potential nuclear agreement with Iran that could threaten the survival of my country.” Netanyahu said to...

Four years ago, former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel breezed to victory in the Chicago mayor's race. He was the golden boy of Democratic politics, mentioned in some party circles as a possible presidential candidate in 2016. Yesterday, the incumbent mayor was humiliated by failing to receive a majority of the votes against 4 relative unknowns. The result forces an April 7 runoff where he is still expected to win handily, but is now considered damaged goods. His downfall? Persistent violence and a pension shortfall threatening to bankrupt the city. Bloomberg: â€œWe have come a long way and...

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel will easily take first place in Tuesday’s municipal election, but polls show he may miss the 50 percent mark needed to avoid a run-off in the race to lead the financially challenged, third-largest U.S. city. Emanuel, 55, a former adviser to President Barack Obama seeking a second term as mayor, has already spent millions of dollars in the non-partisan race against four challengers, and a second round will mean six more weeks of expensive campaigning. Emanuel is close to the mark, getting 48.3 percent of the vote in a recent Ogden & Fry poll. His nearest...

Daughter of former Obama pastor sent to jail after new allegations surface By Ray Long Chicago Tribune contact the reporter The daughter of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the former pastor of President Barack Obama, was sent to jail Monday by a federal judge who revoked her bond in a money laundering case. lRelated Rev. Jeremiah Wright's daughter found guilty of money laundering Breaking News Rev. Jeremiah Wright's daughter found guilty of money laundering Jeri Wright, 49, of Hazel Crest, was convicted last March of 11 corruption counts, including money laundering and lying to a grand jury, in a case tied...

Jeri Wright, the 48-year-old daughter of President Barack Obama’s mentor and former pastor Jeremiah Wright, is heading to jail. Free on bail while awaiting sentencing for money laundering in connection to a government-funded jobs training program, a U.S. District Court Judge found “there was probable cause to believe Wright committed a separate theft while on bail, thereby violating terms of her supervised release.” The new charges against Wright involve more sketchy bookkeeping. The Chicago Sun-Times reports: Prosecutors now say Wright was taking part in another scheme — this one involving ghost payrolling — even as she was standing trial. Between...

Sunday at Christ Universal Temple in Chicago during his annual Saviours’ Day speech, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan attacked former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani for his controversial comments saying Obama doesn’t love America.

Contact: Andrea Lynn a-lynn@uiuc.edu 217-333 -2177 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Ancient Illinois village unearths lode of questions CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Digging under a blazing sun in an Illinois cornfield, archaeologists this summer unearthed a fascinating anomaly: a 900-year-old square hilltop village. The discovery near Shiloh -- about 15 miles southeast of St. Louis -- challenges previous notions of the area's first people and adds a piece to the puzzle that was Cahokia, a huge "mother culture" that suddenly appeared, and just as suddenly vanished, leaving only traces of its majesty and meaning in the 11th century. Until now, archaeologists...

**SNIP** So Thursday, the FEC sent Jackson’s campaign committee its eighth consecutive failure-to-file notice. It must file its end-of-the year report for 2014 or face a penalty. (Perhaps that threat rings a bit hollow when you’re already in jail?) In August 2014, the FEC fined Jackson for nearly $18,000 for not filing reports in 2013, according to the Chicago Tribune. He must formally terminate his committee to get the FEC off his back, but his treasurer quit in September 2013, and so it seems there’s no person responsible for doing the necessary paperwork. Since his last report in November 2012,...

Chicago really doesn't need a presidential temple of worship masquerading as a presidential library, or a fancy downtown college basketball palace, or a Star Wars museum on the lakefront. And downtown doesn't need a big casino, either, not even a glitzy one with monstrous video billboards depicting the giant, pitiless eyes of the mayor staring down at those from the neighborhoods who dared to look up. Downtown has been getting quite a bit of attention, and though it might be nice to have all these things, (or not) — they aren't vital to the future of Chicago. But there is...

As opposed to what the Left believes, the purpose of government is not to impose social justice. As often happens, that was forgotten in Scotus’ 1964 Reynolds v. Sims ruling. Citing a non-existent “one man one vote” principle, eight Warren Court black-robes ruled that state legislative districts must be of approximately equal populations. Through a rogue interpretation of the equal protection clause, these masterminds imposed a democratic republic form of government on all fifty states! Never mind the constitution simply guaranteed a republican form of government, Scotus illegally overruled centuries of wisdom and imposed democracy. Republics demand consent of the...

A Washington grandmother and florist of 40 years who refused to service gay weddings because of her faith will now be forced to arrange flowers for gay ceremonies, a judge ruled Wednesday. On top of that, the woman, Barronelle Stutzman, will have to pay the legal penalties imposed by the judge as well as attorney’s fees. Benton County Superior Court Judge Alex Ekstrom ruled in a summary judgement that Stutzman violated anti-discrimination and consumer protection laws. Ekstrom ruled that the gay couple could collect penalties not just from her business, but also from her personally, according to Alliance Defending Freedom,...

A wrongfully convicted man filed a $40 million lawsuit on Tuesday against Northwestern University, a former journalism professor, a private investigator and an attorney, accusing them of framing him for a double murder to get another man released. Alstory Simon, 64, of Ohio, claims in the lawsuit that he was the victim of unethical tactics by a team focused on freeing another man in what became a celebrated Illinois wrongful conviction case. Simon was imprisoned in 1999 after confessing to the 1982 murder of two people in a park, and spent more than 15 years behind bars before he was...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A South Side neighborhood in Chicago is getting long-sought federal protection from President Barack Obama, whose visit on Thursday could also provide a political lift to the city's mayor. Obama will formally designate the neighborhood where African-American railroad workers won a historic labor agreement in the 1930s. In the process, the president's trip to his hometown could help boost turnout for his former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, who is running for re-election in Tuesday's contest.

Longtime presidential adviser David Axelrod claims 'there hasn't been a major scandal' in the Obama White House – and draws a mix of applause and laughter Longtime Obama administration political insider David Axelrod claimed on Monday that the Obama administration hasn't been tainted by a smidgen of scandal. The surprising boast came during a Q&A at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, an organization he founded and leads. 'I'm proud of the fact that basically you have had an administration in place for six years in which there hasn’t been a major scandal,' Axelrod said. 'And I think that...

On the banks of the Illinois River, about 60 miles west of the state capital in Springfield, an old coal-fired power plant sits waiting for its future to arrive. First opened in 1948, it's been dormant since 2011, when its owner, St. Louis-based Ameren, shut down the plant rather than retrofit it to meet federal standards. Last year workers came to give it a makeover. Using almost $1 billion in stimulus money, the project was supposed to become the poster child for clean-coal technology. Rather than spewing into the sky, the carbon dioxide produced as the plant burned coal would...

---SNIP--- On a nitty-gritty level, I would be interested if Dave Zirin can think of a single example on the South Side of Chicago of a) Boys and Girls Clubs that are now bistros, or b) public baseball diamonds that are now condos. Actually, I'm not that interested, because I know the answer, which is "No," because a) those things did not happen and b) Dave Zirin made them up. One reason I know that Dave Zirin made them up is that black neighborhoods in Chicago, particularly on the South Side, almost never gentrify. --SNIP-- Which means that Dave Zirin...

Governor Palin wowed the crowd as she arrived on the "red carpet" for Saturday Night Live’s 40th Anniversary 3-hour special.She stopped on the "red carpet" to talk with actor Alec Baldwin, quipping that she likes his brother, Stephen –a conservative– better. NBC anchors Savannah Guthrie and Matt Lauer intereviewed the two of them, and it may be me, but it seemed as though Baldwin was doing his best to keep Gov. Palin from talking. After Guthrie asked her a direct question, Baldwin was forced to listen, while chomping on his gum (or could it have been leftover food from dinner?)Twitchy caught some of the...

Senator Ted Cruz, the boat-rocking limited government constitutional conservative Senator from Texas, provided another one of his patented cross examinations of a smoke-blowing government official at a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Cruz, the son of legal immigrants from Cuba, asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano about border security measures – the so-called “triggers” – contained in the “Gang of Eight's” immigration bill. Specifically, Senator Cruz asked, “If there are no objective metrics, if it is simply the subjective assessment of a host of factors, how can we have any confidence that the border will be secured and that any...

CBC News Posted: Feb 14, 2015 Halifax police, RCMP, CBSA and Homeland Security all involved in investigation Two people were arrested at Halifax Stanfield International Airport and have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder after an alleged plot was foiled to kill a large number of people at the Halifax Shopping Centre in the city's west end on Valentine's Day. Lindsay Kantha Souvannarath, a 23-year-old from Geneva, Ill., and Randall Steven Shepherd, 20, of Halifax have been charged.

Some Democrats are planning to boycott the speech Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to deliver to Congress in March on the basis of false charges. A phony narrative has been ginned up, alleging that “protocol” was breached in the invitation, and that the White House is justified in shunning the PM of our closest ally, the only Middle East democracy. Ed Lasky was among the very first to point out that the White House was indeed notified of the planned invitation before it was issued, trashing the narrative that protocol was violated and the president cruelly blindsided. Now, writing...

Republicans voice support for Netanyahu congressional speech Top Republican leaders took to public and private channels Thursday to expose a coordinated campaign by the Obama administration to attack Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his acceptance of an invitation to speak before Congress, according to conversations with multiple lawmakers and leading pro-Israel insiders. The statements, many of which were obtained by the Washington Free Beacon in conversations with leaders in Congress, come in the aftermath of a widely cited New York Times report in which Obama administration officials accused Netanyahu of breaking diplomatic protocol by agreeing to speak before receiving...

You could conclude from the hot political bombast across frigid Illinois that Gov. Bruce Rauner wants to destroy public sector labor unions, starving them of fees from state workers. Or you could conclude that Rauner wants to end what he calls a corrupt bargain between unions and Springfield politicians that's crushing taxpayers. As the governor and organized labor square off, their battle to control the narrative — their battle for your approval, really — is ferocious. Rauner on Monday issued an executive order to free state employees who don't belong to unions from paying fees that support union operations. He...

BREITBART | When Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) accused Republicans opposed to spending federal funds to implement President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty of threatening the nation’s security, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) had to set the record straight on Thursday. Senate Democrats have used the filibuster and blocked the House’s Homeland Security spending bill, which funds the department except for Obama’s executive amnesty, three times, and Sessions said Democrats like Durbin are putting Obama’s executive amnesty, which also undermines the country’s security, ahead of funding the department. Earlier in the day, Durbin said he has “been trying to understand what is holding...

Little League Baseball vacated all of Chicago-area Jackie Robinson West’s wins from the 2014 Little League World Series tournament on Wednesday. After investigating allegations that several players on JRW do not reside within the team’s district borders, LLB stripped the team of both it’s Great Lakes Regional and U.S. national titles. Despite the open and shut nature of the case, several of the team’s supporters — including Jesse Jackson and Michael Pfleger — stated at a Wednesday press conference that JRW’s punishment had nothing to do with any possible recruiting infractions and was born purely through…

Little League officials announced Wednesday morning that Jackie Robinson West, the 2014 U.S. Little League World Series champions, have vacated their wins and been stripped of their title thanks to the use of ineligible players. In essence, they attempted to build a Little League all-star team by bringing aboard players from Chicago districts outside of their own, and a neighboring league caught on and reported as much to Little League officials.According to Evergreen Park officials -- the neighboring league which caught on to the illegal roster -- Jackie Robinson West spent their 2014 "manipulating, bending and blatantly breaking the rules for...

JRW Supporters Suggest Decision To Take Title Racially Motivated February 11, 2015 2:58 PM (CBS) – There are accusations that racism was behind the decision by Little League International to strip the Jackie Robinson West team of the national title over cheating by the adults who run the team. “We know that we’re champions, our parents know that we’re champions and the team’s parents know we’re champions and Chicago knows we’re champions,” said JRW catcher Brandon Green. Green said the players did nothing wrong as he stood with his mother, Rev. Jesse Jackson and Fr. Michael Pfleger at the headquarters...

tates: Illinois entrepreneur turned governor Bruce Rauner ends the practice of forced union dues for government workers who don't want to join a union as he pursues right-to-work zones to promote growth. In Illinois, they're called "fair share" dues collected from workers said to benefit from the collective bargaining of the unions they're in thrall to, whether they want to join or not, moneys collected by force to pay for that representation. "Fair share" is a favorite mantra to liberals, but not to newly elected Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner. He believes that there's nothing fair about extorting money from people...

Little League Baseball has stripped the U.S. championship from the Chicago-based Jackie Robinson West team and has suspended the coach for violating a rule prohibiting the use of players who live outside the geographic area that the team represents, it was announced Wednesday. The Jackie Robinson West team, the first all-African-American team to win the championship, must vacate wins from the 2014 Little League Baseball International Tournament -- including its Great Lakes Regional and United States championships. The Jackie Robinson West Little League team was ruled to have used players from outside its local area by recruiting players from neighboring...

WHEREAS Gov. Bruce Rauner issued a sweeping executive order Monday "respecting state employees' freedom of speech," and WHEREAS this order began with 26 "Whereas ..." paragraphs, many of which mistily invoked the violated rights of public sector workers who are now "forced against their will" to fund "activities to which they object," and WHEREAS our patience for hand-waving, smoke screens and general rhetorical folderol is limited ... THEREFORE let's cut the rubbish. Rauner's order isn't animated by empathy or some fastidious concern with constitutional fine points. It's animated by a desire to put public employee unions into a death spiral,...

And so it begins. Gov. Bruce Rauner fired his first shot Monday in his campaign to give all Illinois workers the right to choose to work for less money. Rauner’s legally dubious executive order relieving state employees of the requirement they pay union dues was a loud declaration the new governor aims to restore Illinois to prosperity — by undercutting the organizing power of its work force. The governor’s initial targeting of public employee unions was no surprise given his election rhetoric, but his use of an executive order to impose his will seemed to catch everyone off guard. “I...

The charges allege that between September 2013 and December 2014, Peterson plotted to hire a hit man to kill Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow, the prosecutor who led the 2012 trial that resulted in Peterson being convicted of killing his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Peterson, who is currently incarcerated at the Menard Correctional Center, made an initial appearance on the charges Monday at the Randolph County Courthouse. A preliminary hearing is set for March 3 at 10 a.m. SNIP The charges allege that between September 2013 and December 2014, Peterson solicited an unnamed individual to carry out a murder-for-hire...

Six Bosnian immigrants have been charged in the U.S. for allegedly supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the Department of Justice said Friday. The suspects, five of whom were arrested in the U.S., are all charged with providing material support to terrorists and conspiring to provide material support and resources to terrorists, the DOJ said in a statement. They were identified as Ramiz Zijad Hodzic, 40, his wife Sedina Unkic Hodzic, 35, and Armin Harcevic, 37, who live in St. Louis County, Missouri; Nihad Rosic, 26, of Utica, New York; Mediha Medy Salkicevic, 34 of Schiller Park,...

Birthday - Ronald Reagan, (1911-2004) the 40th U.S. President, was born in Tampico, Illinois. Reagan spent 30 years as an entertainer in radio, film, and television before becoming governor of California in 1966. Elected to the White House in 1980, he survived an assassination attempt and became the most popular president since Franklin Roosevelt. http://api.ning.com/files/vaBRVGKu-A9RXBvuSC2bW9jktb2za5*YNqm-EoauRFt*S0RfHMrvBi6KFKDz8pQXRaIlIBlRw7C37JsI7Ep5rZ2o-gdRA957/RonaldReagan.jpg